Last Few Days In Florida!

My idea of the perfect cottage, I'm sure there is room for an artist's studio! This little cottage is in our neighbourhood in Madeira Beach where we take our walks. If only .....


This photo is of a very unique garden collection at a beach cottage. The amount of inspiring beach stuff was amazing. I loved it! This last week, hubby and I ventured into St. Petersberg to see the Dali Museum. Symbolism was Dali's specialty. I was thrilled to see his personal symbolism in his very weird paintings. When I taught Dali to the kids at school, I was not too far off in my interpretation of the symbolism.



More mail box art! This one is part of that cute pink cottage pictured above.



Personal Symbols Class: Lesson 2
This is my painted peltex using beach colours.



This is one of the pieces with stamping, splattering and painted starfish. I used a little fishes stamp, an abstract stamp for fimo and a real shell from the beach. I cut it up into post card size and covered it in gel medium ( decoupage glue).




Sketchbook doodles using beach symbols.

Combined symbols, from the beach.

Additional Symbols from the internet.

Finished postcard piece. Paper symbols glued on, stitched around, beaded. Button embellishments and found jewelery piece in upper right corner.

At the Beach

(the heart symbolizes my love of the beach)

My finished svar______ crystal reversable bracelet made at the Celestial Bead Shop in John's Pass yesterday. It was a challenge using needle and thread. Thank you to the teacher, Suzanne. I used two colours of crystals and two colours of 11 and 15 beads. It involves 3 distinct patterns circles sitting upon each other. It is so beautiful. I can hardly wait to show my beading buddy, Sandra!

My friend at the beach today. He sat near my chair for the lonest time! The breeze was cool,, the sun was warm and the sound of the waves was heavenly! For sure I am a Beach girl!!!

Florida Art

My latest Stitchery under construction on my hand painted fabric.


Floral Art at the Florida Botanical Gardens




Hello again from Florida. Its a bit cool here, they are talking a bit about snow! Just yesterday I sat at the pool reading and sunning. On Sunday, I travelled to the Florida Botanical Gardens and took in the heavenly flora, unfortunately I didn't see any alligators, though hubby was sure he saw some big turtles. Above is a photo from a lovely water garden.




In the neighbourhood I am collecting photos of mail box art on my daily walks , some of it is hand painted like this one. Other examples include a carved manatee, a golden retriever and a football helmet! I am sure I will be inspired to make something using mail box art.

I started this week with my on line class with Susan Sorrell over at Creative Chick on Personal Symbols. Below are some of my sketches using drawings from nature and my own symbols for emotional expressions.


Drawings from the beach

Tomorrow, I start lesson two of Personal Symbols. This required a trip to JoAnns to stock up on paint, brushes, glue, medium, a new stamp, a stamp pad, embellishments, peltex and some decorative beach papers for collaging. Until next time, keep stitching.

Mixed Mania in Florida

Hello from Florida. Its amazing! Vacation is so quiet and time does go slower. You have fewer things to fret about doing. I find that I am missing having my pet with me.
This the cute little Pool beside our little yellow cottage at Madeira Beach, Florida.



I have been doing some stitching in the evening on this embellished piece consisting of scraps from my challenge piece for The Thread Studio. I think I'll call it Cascade, I love doing the varigated French knots using pearl cotton and embroidery floss.



I spent an afternoon painting papers with watercolour paints and watercolour crayons. I had just finished reading one of my Christmas presents: Mixed Mania by Cheryl Prater and Debbi Crane. Good Book and lots of ideas to try!



I will cut up some of the papers for other projects. Following are two pages I did in my ongoing sketchbook.



Lastly, a view of the Gulf of Mexico at sunset. That's Hubby walking on the beach.


Until next time, keep stitching!

Welcome to Madeira Beach Florida

Art Fest ATCs


Cyber Fyber Postcard ( vote for me)


We made it to sunny Florida! We have a cute little yellow cottage and a very private pool and we are across the road from the Gulf of Mexico. A short distance away is John's Pass, a boutique and restaurant area. It was worth getting lost in St. Petersberg for the afternoon. The stop in Lake City at The Fabric Art Shop was well worth it. I found books, threads, and painting tools to buy. It was hard to stop gathering stuff at the cash register. Since then I have visited JoAnn's fabrics and The Rainbow's End Quilt Store in Duneden. I found some wool roving at R's End for embellishing. They have hundreds of bolts of fabric, that it makes you dizzy! I only got two fat quarters near the cash register that caught my eye. We went over to a nearby Cafe and met Bee who sells old estate jewellery. I bought some little trinkets that had just come in and would be great to add as embellishment.

Another surprise is my winning Artfest for a second time on Cloth Paper Studio. My ATCs sent to Susan Lenz for the Cyber Fyber ATC trade were chosen by Suzy. Thank you Suzy! This is a great group to join and the artists are very friendly and supportive of each other's art. My post card and ATC traded to Susan Lenz for Cyber Fyber is now on the site and could use your vote. http://cyberfyberexhibition.blogspot.com/